Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

In Association with the British Academy

Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison

50,000 biographies and 60 million words record the lives of the men and women who shaped all aspects of British past over the last 2,400 years.

From Ashford to Zimbabwe, administrators to zealots, the Oxford DNB is filled with the everyday and the unexpected. Its range is enormous, covering a multitude of professions, places, and sometimes strange preoccupations.

In print form, 60,000 pages in 60 volumes, plus an index of contributors.

Over 36,000 newly written biographies, including 13,500 newly selected people from all historical periods.

Over 3,000 newly included biographies of women.

10,000 expert contributors worldwide have written articles of up to 30,000 words in length.

10,000 portrait illustrations, accompanying the relevant subject's life - the largest ever selection of national portraiture.

A new focus gives extended coverage of the regions of the British Isles, Britons abroad, and former colonies.

400 specialist advisers and a 50-strong editorial team have worked for ten years to create this new authority.

A £25 million project jointly funded by Oxford University Press and the British Academy.

An absolutely fascinating read.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

In Association with the British Academy

Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison

Description

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of men and women who have shaped all aspects of the British past, from the earliest times to the end of the year 2000. The stories of these lives - told in substantial, authoritative, and readable articles - have been published simultaneously in 60 print volumes and online.

Inclusive - Authoritative - Unique

The original DNB was conceived in 1882 by George Smith, publisher of the Brontës and Trollope, and first edited by Virginia Woolf's father, Sir Leslie Stephen. The editorial policy of the original DNB was remarkably inclusive: any person of note could be included who had lived in, or had a significant connection with the British Isles. The Oxford DNB takes a similarly inclusive approach: subjects range from the great and the good to the popular, pioneering, eccentric, notorious, and downright criminal.

In 'national' scope the pragmatic approach of the original DNB has been retained. The Oxford DNB covers people born in the British Isles; it also includes inhabitants of the USA and Commonwealth countries before independence, many British-born people whose main impact was made overseas, and many who were born elsewhere but whose impact within the United Kingdom was substantial.

Everyone included in the old dictionary is in the Oxford DNB but all their biographies have been revised or completely rewritten to reflect modern scholarship. A further 13,500 lives of new subjects broadens the coverage of previously neglected areas in all periods. These include many articles on women and twentieth-century subjects as well as previously under-represented fields such as business and science. Over 1800 people who died between 1991 and 2000 have also been included for the first time. In order to ensure a well-balanced view of a subject we do not include any biographies of people that are still living.

Owing to its accessible and authoritative coverage, the Oxford DNB will appeal to a wide readership: from scholarly researchers to university, college, and school students, professional writers to general readers of biography, local and family historians to librarians, archivists, and curators. It is the essential biographical and historical resource for all major libraries.

Editorial excellence

Like the Oxford English Dictionary the project springs from a remarkable partnership between publisher and scholars. The Oxford DNB is constituted as a research and publishing project of the University of Oxford, with research funding from the British Academy, and all other funding and resources from Oxford University Press. The editor is Professor Brian Harrison (Professor of Modern British History, University of Oxford) who succeeded the founding editor, the late Professor H. C. G. Matthew FBA, in January 2000. Over 30 in-house research scholars, 12 external consultant editors and 400 associate editors made recommendations about new subjects and specialist authors, and reviewed completed work for academic quality. The large community of people contributing to the Oxford DNB is spread around the world and made up of 10,000 academic and non-academic authors.

The largest selection of national portraiture ever published

The Oxford DNB contains 10,000 portrait illustrations, each shown next to the relevant biography. This special project was completed in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery in London. Drawing on the National Portrait Gallery's own collections and a wide range of other sources, a specialist research team has assembled the largest selection of national portraiture ever published. Images chosen for reproduction range from paintings, drawings, and sculpture to photographs, medals, and death masks.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

In Association with the British Academy

Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison

Author Information

Edited by H. C. G. Matthew, Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford, and Fellow of St Hugh's College, Oxford, and Brian Harrison, Professor of Modern History, University of Oxford

Contributors:

10,000 expert contributors worldwide, 400 specialist advisers and a 50-strong editorial team have worked for ten years to create this new authority.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

In Association with the British Academy

Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison

Reviews and Awards

Winner in the Best User Experience category at the International Information Industry Awards 2005

Winner of the Besterman/McColvin Medal for outstanding works of reference published in the UK, in the electronic category

Winner of the 2005 Dartmouth Medal, presented by the Reference and User Services Association, for current reference works of outstanding quality and significance

"Rejoice! Rejoice! ... the great publishing event of 2004." - The Times

"There is fascination and scholarship in equal measure to be found on every single page of this extraordinary endeavour ... The Oxford DNB brings the figures of our national story into sharp focus, brilliantly illuminating the darkest corners of our remarkable past." - Simon Winchester, author of The Meaning of Everything

"It's nothing less than the family snapshot album of the island race ... one of the biggest publishing ventures ever undertaken in this country ... The DNB is not just a prodigious piece of scholarship; it's also a mirror of Britishness." - Godfrey Smith, Sunday Times

"I have long thought that if more people sold the family car and bought the ODNB, the nation would not only be better informed but much happier too. Actually, there's no need to go the whole hog. Public libraries provide free online access in the privacy of your own laptop. So don't go out, stay in and get a life, or thousands.." - Christopher Howse, Daily Telegraph

"One of the most audacious publishing programmes of all time." - David Smith, The Observer

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

In Association with the British Academy

Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison

From Our Blog

By Andrew C. Thompson On 1 August 1714, Queen Anne died. Her last days were marked by political turmoil that saw Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, struggle to assert their authority. However, on her deathbed Anne appointed the moderate Charles Talbot, duke of Shrewsbury, as the last ever lord treasurer.

By Mark Curthoys Behind the victory anthems to be used by the competing teams at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, which open on 23 July, lie stories both of nationality and authorship. The coronation of Edward VII in 1902 prompted the music antiquary William Hayman Cummings (1831-1915) to investigate the origin and history of 'God Save the King'.

By Victoria Van Hyning In the two and a half centuries following the dissolution of the monasteries in England in the 1530s, women who wanted to become nuns first needed to become exiles. The practice of Catholicism in England was illegal, as was undertaking exile for the sake of religious freedom.

By Matthew Brown Charles Miller claimed to have brought the first footballs to Brazil, stepping off the boat in the port of Santos with a serious expression, his boots, balls and a copy of the FA regulations, ready to change the course of Brazilian history. There are no documents to record the event, only Miller's own account of a conversation, in which historians have picked numerous holes.